WORCESTERSHIRE Tories have lauded David Cameron's pledge to revive the right-to-buy scheme - despite the Labour Party calling it "cynical".

In a General Election gambit, the Prime Minister has attempted to reach out to working people by setting out plans to let 1.3 million housing association tenants buy their properties.

The move has echoes of the late Lady Thatcher's 1980s policy, with tenants able to take advantage of a 35 per cent discount on the market value of their homes, plus an extra one per cent for every year they have lived there.

On top of that, an extra 400,000 homes will be built on brownfield land to offset the decline in available social homes as part of the Tory manifesto.

Worcester Conservative candidate Robin Walker, whose late father Lord Walker was instrumental in the first policy, said: "Extending the ‘right to buy’ is very welcome, so long as homes that are sold are replaced with new affordable homes.

"The commitments to build these on brown field sites is also good news for anyone who values the British countryside."

West Worcestershire Tory Harriett Baldwin said: "The Conservative party has a long track record helping people to get onto the housing ladder and I am sure local families will welcome this manifesto commitment."

But Daniel Walton, her Labour rival in the constituency, told your Worcester News it would make little difference.

"It's a big problem around West Worcestershire, the gap between pay and the price of homes," he said.

"Wages have been falling since 2010 but property prices have continued to go up.

"We support right-to-buy as a principle but this doesn't do enough - it is a cynical move."

Under Mr Cameron's plan flats would get a 50 per cent discount plus an extra two per cent for every year of occupation.